"That is happiness; to be disolved into something complete and great. When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep." - Willa Cather

There was an error in this gadget

Tuesday, 1 June 2010

Yasso 800s: My tumultuous love affair with speed work continues

It turns out I've missed speed work a lot. I tapered for the Copenhagen Marathon, failed miserably, nursed a hip injury the week after, ran 39 spiritual miles over the weekend and the ONLY thing that sounded good to me today was speed work. And why not Yasso 800s? I love the distance of 800 meters, but have never gotten myself to actually run it 10 times in a row, as Bart Yasso intended (for marathon time prediction, anyway). Last summer, on the same dirt track I ran on today, I never ran over 6 of them before collapsing out of utter fatigue.

Today I told myself "You ran a marathon 3 days ago. Just run consistent times so you can get through all 10 rounds of 800 meters". I also told myself to not think of writing the times on the blog and to just think of completing it. Well, I'm going to write them anyway, of course. They may not be very fast, but they are consistent and I am thus pleased.

It's a fun workout. It is hardly worth mentioning that Bart Yasso believed that the average of these times predicts your marathon time in hours. I discussed this very same topic last year. And, of course, I can't run a marathon in under 3 hours. So I'm not a believer in it for predicting. But it is a fun way to get speedwork.

I listened to the same song every single time so I would know how I was doing based on where I was in the song. Much more fun than staring at my Garmin. Especially since it fit my tempo perfectly:

It was "Collector" by Here We Go Magic

Tonight I am off to a running get together with some of the participants of the 24 hour relay this weekend. We are doing an hour of practice running on the 2,700 meter hilly loop in the woods of Holte, which will be used for the race.

I, too, am mostly happy with how consistent these splits are. Wonderfully done! much better than a span of your mile splits:) As for prediction, it does work if the rest of the training falls in: tempos at certain pace, marathon pace runs, long runs hill workouts. Try MP for 10-12 miles in the middle of a 20M run. I am sure SR knows the drill:)And, oh, I have no opinion on moving the website. I declined all of those simply because I am lazy and don't like to stand out. I don't advertize much for the same reason, whether my services or my sponsors. I just go out and run, and when so inclined, blubber on the computer:)

hey SLG those are some very consistent times, nice work. To answer your question my camera is just a little Canon Powershot SD1200...I've been experimenting with its features in the hope that maybe one day I'll upgrade to a digital SLR ...one day....

Danni,Wow. Did you actually talk to BY?Agree totally with your "follow" comment. And I'd have to be able to follow your and my other faves and I'm not sure that would be possible. I'll pose that question.

Steve, well I suppose I could just follow Piccola's training plan rather than directly asking you. Lately, I've turned into my own coach, which makes me happier, but may make me slower :(. The moment I start thinking I'm slowing down, I'll have to ask my coach for forgiveness.

Olga, I am so happy your are happy! Thanks also for the advice. I have never done hill workouts. And I don't know what an MP is, so I'll ask SR. And I feel quite the same about my blog and have no interest in making money because then I think the writing would be affected as I felt obliged to cover certain topics or endorse certain things.

Cherelli, you are good! I have had a digital SLR for 5 years now and I took great pics with a Nikkor lens, but then that broke and now I have a Tamarak lens (from my dad) and the pictures just aren't as good. Anyway, you certainly do wonders with what you have! When you DO get an SLR, get at Nikkor lens... trust me!

Yeah, so?That's what I always think in my head when I hear about the Yasso 800s, his last name is probably not even pronounced that way.Strangely you are following the steveq marathon plan, at least this week. The Yasso 800s were scheduled for today only I woke up with a cold and didn't get them done. Maybe tomorrow. It'll actually be my first time ever doing the Yasso work-out.Are you ever going to spill the beans about which website contacted you?

p.s. can you do me a favour and browse to karagoucher.org? when I try I get a msg saying "users from your country are not permitted to browse this site" which seems very odd. I am wondering if this is an Italian thing or a European thing (or just a problem at my end)

ok. I can't believe I am opening this can of worms again but here goes: had things gone right at Copenhagen i.e. proper hydrating & eating the day before, no vomiting, no chocking due to pressure and expectations, there is NO DOUBT in my mind you could have broken 3:20 and probably run close to 3:15. Why am I bringing this up again? I did the Yeah, So? 800 m work-out today. I will save my detailed thoughts about the Yasso work-out for a post I am writing BUT in brief, my feeling is the Yasso work-out predicts to within 15 minutes of one's marathon time (and I am being conservative there) - so that's a 3:13. Then, let's look at your 1/2 marathon and let's take the 1:33 time (which is probably 2 minutes slow). The MOST conservative formulas say double your 1/2 time and add 10 minutes - that's a 3:16 right there. Now the Yasso & 1/2 marathon predictors probably don't work well for a 5 km/10 km runner who is adding in a few long runs to call it a marathon but you are coming from the ultra end of the spectrum and therefore should hold even more true for you.Yeah? So? what's my point? Ok. well, if setting a target race and gearing your training to it is not enjoyable for you then you absolutely shouldn't do it. Ultimately running is a hobby for you and as such, pleasure should be the most important outcome. So I am not advocating that you put yourself on the line again. I just wanted to share my reflections during 10 X 800 m this morning with you.

Piccola, I love the fact that you keep thinking about it and keep encouraging me. I think my marathon problem is this: I have two running modes: one which is fast for up to the half marathon distance and one which is slow for ultras and I need to develop that in-between tempo for a marathon. It will just take training. I think the solution is longer intervals, but I'm not my coach.

Hello from Rude Skov

Photo by Stine Sophie Winckel

...

My name is Tracy. I am a physician scientist from the USA, living with my husband and two young boys in Denmark. I work as a post-doc fellow at Næstved Hospital. I have a scientific interest in vision loss, vision loss during exercise, exercise, running during pregnancy, MAF training as well as nutrition and health for athletes. I also have a love for music, physics, statistics, cycling, yoga, cross-country skiing, bla bla bal.

I was a member of Team USA at the IAU World Championships in Ultra Trail Running in 2013 in Wales. I am now training to run with Team Denmark at the IAU World Championships in Annency, France in May 2015.